Professional Leadership Issues in Nursing

Professional Leadership Issues in Nursing

Various different approaches to conflict resolution are available to organizational supervisors. Avoidance may be useful where the importance of the immediate demands of the organization preclude even the most justified demands of individuals. Likewise, smoothing may be useful where the specific complaints are too petty to justify immediate supervisory resolution. Accommodating is useful both where a particular individual has an especially strong argument as well as where the consequences of the alternative are potentially more damaging to the organization (or its strategic objectives) than accommodation. In principle, accommodation is the basis of awarding raises and other benefits deserved by employees who are competent enough to command those same rewards from competing organizations.

Competing is generally not a viable long-term approach to resolving conflicts because it undermines teamwork and unity; its value may largely restricted to isolated short-term applications and to teams that are assembled for short-term projects rather than long-term relationships. Compromising is an effective approach where the individuals involved in the conflict have roughly equally strong arguments or rights to their desired outcomes. It is also useful where there is comparatively little basis for an objective resolution on the merits of the respective arguments.

Finally, collaboration is often the best conflict resolution approach because in can also incorporate elements of compromise and because it is most conducive to resolving the underlying tensions that trigger specific conflicts. Most importantly, collaboration is also most consistent with establishing and maintaining the professional rapport and mutual respect that are essential to effective professional working relationships and environments.

Choice of Conflict Resolution Strategy and Rationale

The most appropriate conflict resolution strategy for this vocational conflict is collaboration, although I would only invoke conflict resolution after first dealing with the threshold issue of understanding the nature of professional responsibility and the comparative unimportance of such petty issues in the larger framework and perspective of professional nursing. Collaboration is the most appropriate strategy primarily because effective teamwork is essential to the quality of medical care and an absolute requirement for nursing units to work together effectively.

Ideally, individuals comprised by nursing units should understand that everyone has unique personal circumstances and desires but that medical professionals who are in charge of life-and-death decisions simply cannot afford to lose sight of their primary professional responsibilities, especially over relatively petty concerns. In principle, this "preamble" to resolution of the specific conflict at issue is crucial because otherwise, similar conflicts are likely to recur repeatedly. By addressing the underlying self-centeredness and relative pettiness of this particular conflict, the supervisor can dramatically reduce the chances of its recurrence. Conversely, if the supervisor proceeds directly to conflict resolution, he or she will almost certainly be required to mediate the same issue the very next time similar factual circumstances arise.

In that regard, I would explain to the entire nursing unit that it is expected that everyone will work together as a team instead of as separate individuals. At the most fundamental level, that requires all team members to be able to consider the respective positions and concerns of coworkers as well as the concept of objective fairness. I would suggest that one of the most important tools within the collaborative approach to conflict resolution is the ability to imagine ones' self in the position of another before forming a strong opinion of who is right in a specific situation.

For example, I would ask Mark to imagine what he would consider fair if he had recently been forced to work three floating shifts back to back because the unit was short-staffed as a result of Lisa's taking her vacation. Furthermore, I would explain to Mark that if his vacation spared him from having to fill floating responsibilities that is already an additional benefit to him and not something for which he deserves extra privileges or compensation. More importantly, his coworkers already had to fill more floating shifts than they would have otherwise because he was on vacation. Therefore, instead of considering himself to be unfairly burdened by being asked to fill a floating shift, Mark should be appreciative and should probably volunteer for it, precisely out of the desire to be fair to his coworkers.

That aspect of conflict resolution would be an element of collaboration in the long-term as well as the short-term because it would reduce the potential for such conflicts in general. Similarly, I would express my appreciation to Jenny for coming in on her day off to support the team, but I would suggest that once that decision is made, she cannot then make any specific demands or limitations on the capacity in which she is available for duty. In any case, to the extent the unit requires a floater Jenny is supporting the team by being available for that assignment. Ultimately, I would use collaboration to resolve this conflict because it provides the best opportunity to address the underlying problems that generated the conflict and because its most likely to improve relations in the nursing unit.

Rationale for not Selecting other Resolution Strategies

I would reject the avoidance and smoothing approach because in this situation that would only exacerbate the existing conflicts and only solidify the respective positions already expressed by the individuals involved. Moreover, both avoidance and smoothing would almost certainly ensure that the same conflict would arise the very next time the issue of floating arose in the unit.